Which of two common network types is a more efficient "percolator"? In this activity, we'll build on the previous NetLogo activities, and build networks (uniform random and preferential attachment) over which epidemics will spread. Of course, percolation through a network isn't limited to epidemics; for example, we can use similar approaches to model the transmission of ideas, rumors, inventions – even religions – over social networks.

What makes Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) a good subject for a simulation model? What's the point of playing RPS on a square lattice network? For one thing, there are some biological systems which behave, in certain respects, like Rock-Paper-Scissors. One such example is an ecosystem made of up three strains of Escherichia coli, or E. coli. Further, placing agents on a square lattice network, and then rewiring some portion of the network, is one approach to modeling the "shaking up" of the E. coli ecosystem – an action which can dramatically affect the emergent behavior of the ecosystem. The result is a vivid example of the importance of relative scale in complex systems, and of the importance of the small world phenomenon in graph & network theory.